Jashugan/History
Background Jashugan's background prior to his motorball career is not revealed, nor how long he has been competing in the sport. In ES 571, five years before Daisuke Ido found Alita in the Tiphares junkyard, Jashugan was a rookie in the highest motorball league, the Top League. He and his rival Esdoc (better known as "Ed") were involved in a deadly accident in which Jashugan sustained massive brain damage. He would have died had not Desty Nova intervened and performed reconstructive brain surgery on him. Using a Tipharean technology called Gehirn Umbao, Nova used nanomachines to rebuild the column structure of Jashugan’s cerebral cortex and strengthen his neurons with artificial proteins. The reconstruction helped Jashugan survive and become the motorball champion thanks to the abilities that he gained. This was in stark contrast to Ed, who also survived, but became dependent on acceleration drug injections to stay competitive, which resulted in a side effect called "Terminal Frost" which forced his eventual retirement. The relationship between the two is cordial, but deep down Ed still seeks to surpass Jashugan, and tries to do this vicariously through Alita after he becomes her manager years later in ES 578. Jashugan paid a high price for his brain reconstruction as a side effect has been the constant risk of death, and he has suffered an increasing series of spasmatic attacks that have caused his heart rate to flatline. He has recovered from these attacks on his own in the past, but during a race that is watched by Ido, Shumira, Alita, and Ed in which he is forced to pit by one of these attacks, it takes Ido’s intervention to save his life. After this, Jashugan knows that his death is near, but cannot reconcile himself to his "absolute death"Battle Angel Alita: Angel of Victory, page 124. Challenge race with Alita After she meets Jashugan, Alita challenges him to an arm-wrestling match with her heart literally as the stakes. The match appears to end as a draw, but Jashugan afterwards notes that he would have lost had it gone longer. To save Alita face, he proposes that they meet again on the motorball circuit on the condition that she assemble a challenge team of at least five members including herself. Knowing that he is close to death, the match is the one thing that he has to look forward to in order to fight for Shumira and uphold his pride and honor as champion. Prior to the race, Ido, as Jashugan's personal tuner, prepares a direct interface so he can transmit Shumira's brainwaves to Jashugan's brain if necessary should he suffer another flatline as a contingency, a measure he took that saved Jashugan before. Jashugan nullifies this however, by administering a sedative to his younger sister, setting himself up for a deathmatch with Alita, but not before asking Shumira to marry Ido and thus secure her future. During the challenge race, Jashugan rips through Alita’s teammates in seconds, leaving the two of them alone to fight it out. Trading blow for blow, Jashugan nearly has Alita at one point, but she is saved by Tiegel, one of Alita's teammates, who manages to distract Jashugan for a few seconds. In the final moments of their battle, right when he is about to win, Jashugan suffers a flatline attack and becomes unable to move. Alita then deals him a killing blow with the Hertza Haeon, but Jashugan's fighting spirit is so strong that he manages to reanimate his "dead" body through raw chi power. He stands up, attacks Alita and completely defeats her before "dying" again, this time for good, with his body melted. Post-death appearances .]] The side story Supersonic Fingers showed Alita and Jashuan's fight on TV and revealed that Alita had a poster of Jashugan on her apartment wall when she was living on her own after retiring from motorball. Twelve years after their match when Alita infiltrated the Granite Inn in search of Nova, she encountered Jashugan in a dream sequence when she was trapped by Nova’s Ouroboros Program. Forced to confront her inner doubts and fears, Alita fought Jashugan again and defeated him. He congratulated her and encouraged her to "aspire to reach heights I was unable to attain".Battle 47 - Alita defeats Jashugan in the dream sequence. Alita's victory enabled her to break out of the Ouroboros and confront Nova. Kishiro has said of this second fight that Alita and Jashugan "had to confront each other again", as "many things had not been said" during their first fight.http://the.sunnyspot.org/manga/gunnm/kinterv.html Accessed on November 8, 2007 Alita recalled Jashugan when Queen Limeira and Zazie departed Leviathan I.Phase 24 - Alita watches the Samoyed I and accompanying New Order vessels depart Leviathan I. He was also one of the many characters from her past shown when Melchizedek, appearing as an afterimage of Arthur Farrell, reached out to her consciousness after her ego was shattered and her Imaginos Body dissolved following Super Nova's Seca attack.Phase 62 - Melchizedek calls out to Alita's fading consciousness. Notes References *''Battle Angel Alita'' Vol. 3, Killing Angel. Viz Media, San Francisco, 1st ed. November 1995. ISBN 978-1-56931-092-2 *''Battle Angel Alita'' Vol. 4, Angel of Victory. Viz Media, San Francisco, 1st ed. November 1995. IISBN 978-1-56931-082-3 *''Battle Angel Alita'' Vol. 8, Fallen Angel. Viz Media, San Francisco, 1st ed. November 1997. ISBN 1-56931-243-5 *Gunnm. 3. Glénat. Nouv. éd., January 10, 2001. ISBN-13 978-2723434775 History